​Boom Bust Travel Edition Part 2

The hotel industry is a fragmented market by nature and there are lots of different hotels operated by lots of different people. There are, however, a lot of big players: Intercontinental Hotel Group, Marriott, Starwood, Wyndham, etc. The hotel industry has seen quite a few mergers over the past year, but the potential merger that has Wall Street abuzz is the IHG, Whyndham, or Blackstone Group takeover of Starwood Hotels. Erin Ade weighs in.

Then, Erin is joined by Ben Schlappig – blogger at “One Mile at a Time.” Ben tells us why US airlines can’t compete with foreign airlines and gives us his take on the best frequent flyer programs.

After the break, RT correspondent Ameera David takes a look at Airbnb – the home-sharing website that allows people to lodge at a much cheaper rate than hotels can offer. The question now is how much that will begin to eat away at hotel industry revenues.

Afterwards, Erin sits down with Gary Leff – blogger at “View from the Wing” and co-founder of Milepoint.com. Gary gives us his take on hotel mergers and acquisitions and tells us how, if at all, they benefits customers.

And in The Big Deal, Erin is joined by Edward Harrison, Bianca Facchinei and Ameera David to debate Airbnb and test each other’s knowledge on common travel myths.